VacationSelector
Hawthorne Bridge and downtown, Portland
PortlandHawthorne Bridge and downtown
Palms on a white beach at Cap Cana, Punta Cana
Punta CanaPalms on a white beach at Cap Cana

Photos: Portland by Cacophony, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Punta Cana by Mary Mark Ockerbloom, CC0.

Portland or Punta Cana?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Portland for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Portland’s own page.

Choose Punta Cana for

  • beaches
  • families
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Punta Cana’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Portland 20, Punta Cana 94: Punta Cana leads by 74 points.
Food & drink. Portland 68, Punta Cana 30: Portland leads by 38 points.
Culture & sights. Portland 38, Punta Cana 8: Portland leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Portland 52, Punta Cana 40: Portland leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Portland 84, Punta Cana 52: Portland leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Portland 58, Punta Cana 35: Portland leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Portland 55, Punta Cana 68: Punta Cana leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Portland 62, Punta Cana 15: Portland leads by 47 points.
Shopping & style. Portland 52, Punta Cana 30: Portland leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Portland 38, Punta Cana 44: Punta Cana leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Portland 55, Punta Cana 15: Portland leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Portland 42, Punta Cana 52: Punta Cana leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Portland and Punta Cana.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Portland
Best match
52match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Punta Cana
40match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Portland in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Punta Cana in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
96 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
PortlandPunta Cana

Where the figures come from

Punta Cana has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Portland: 1991-2020 normals, Portland International Airport (9.8 km from centre). Punta Cana: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Punta Cana (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePortlandPunta Cana
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Dominican Peso (DOP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-4
Emergency number911911
Elevation152 m28 m
Main airportPortland International Airport (PDX)10 km from centre88 non-stop destinationsPunta Cana International Airport (PUJ)1 km from centre93 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePortlandPunta Cana
City population652,503138,919
People per km²1,736292
Museums within 10 km170
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Portland or Punta Cana somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.